American Funds Adds Advisor, Shuffles Managers

Capital Research & Management, the parent firm of the American Funds, is
adding its institutional investment division as an advisor on its equity
offerings. The division, known as Capital Guardian, also runs institutional and
variable annuity accounts. Capital Guardian will join existing advisors Capital
World Investors and Capital Research Global Investors. CRM has a unique
structure in that its equity divisions operate as separate subsidiaries that are
independent of one another. American first split its equity team along retail
and institutional lines in 2002. One team went on to manage the firm's
institutional accounts, while the other focused on the retail American Funds.
This helped the firm maintain relatively small working groups as assets grew and
prevented the firm from exceeding regulatory limits on individual holding
sizes. In 2008, CRM further divided the retail investment team into CWI and
CRGI.

As part of this change, four portfolio managers--Rob Lovelace, Dylan Yolles,
Will Robbins, and Noriko Chen--will move to the institutional division, but they
will continue managing assets on their existing mutual funds. This is especially
notable for Lovelace, who is a long-tenured manager on American
Funds EuroPacific GrowthAEPGX. As a result, funds such as EuroPacific Growth
will now have managers from all three of American's equity divisions. The four
managers will also start running portfolios for the firm's insurance series.
Further, two equity portfolio managers, Alan Wilson and Mark Hickey, will move
to CWI and CRGI from Capital Guardian. They will likely be added as managers to
one or more funds in the coming months. Adding the institutional equity division
to the mix somewhat blurs the distinction between the institutional and retail
investment teams at Capital Group.

Meridian Shareholders Vote to Keep AdvisorThe
shareholders of Meridian
ValueMVALX, Meridian
GrowthMERDX,
and Meridian Equity IncomeMEIFX have approved a one-year contract for their
longtime advisor, Aster Investment Management. The vote closes one more chapter
in what has been a period of transition at the firm. Rick Aster, AIM's founder
and the driving force behind the Meridian funds, died in early 2012. In the wake
of Aster's death, the funds' board terminated AIM's existing contract and then
rehired it on a temporary basis pending the shareholder vote. That allowed the
funds' managers to remain in place during the transition, and now the vote will
keep them in place for another year. To shore up its management ranks, AIM also
rehired two previous Meridian Value managers. Larry Cordisco had stepped down
from the Value fund in 2011 to work as a consultant on technology startups. He
will help run Meridian Growth, along with comanager William Tao, who worked
closely with Aster on the fund for five years, and Jamie England, the current
lead manager on Meridian Value who was pegged to help run Growth in the wake of
Aster's death. Kevin O'Boyle generated strong results at Meridian Value between
1995 and 2004 before leaving to run his own fund. O'Boyle will serve as the
firm's temporary director of research.

While the vote somewhat stabilizes an unstable situation, there are still
developments investors should monitor. The three Meridian funds have seen almost
$300 million exit, or about 10% of assets, which is a reasonable amount given
the situation. Outflows can force managers to sell stocks at inopportune times.
In this case, though, the Meridian funds are trafficking in liquid large- and
mid-cap names that are easier to buy and sell. Another area to watch: how
Aster's ownership stake will be cashed out. It is unclear if new owners would
make drastic changes to the management or the funds' individual strategies.

Hancock Funds Names New CEOWhen John Hancock Funds'
chief executive officer, Keith Hartstein, announced earlier this year he would
retire on Sept. 30, 2012, the company didn't have to look far for a replacement.
Following an internal search, Hancock named Andrew Arnott as its next CEO.
Arnott, who joined Hancock in 1993, has served as the firm's chief operating
officer and most recently led its Investment Management Services group, which is
tasked with performing due diligence on Hancock subadvisors and its internal
managers. Arnott has also played a key role in positioning the firm's broader
fund lineup.

Hartford Manager Steps DownFrank Ossino has stepped down
as a comanager on Hartford
Floating RateHFLAX and has left subadvisor Wellington Management.
Comanager Michael Bacevich remains on the fund. Earlier this year, Hartford
veterans Ossino and Bacevich moved to Wellington after their employer shifted
fixed-income management responsibilities away from in-house teams. Hartford
wanted to consolidate the subadvisor role around Wellington because that firm
was already the primary subadvisor for many Hartford equity funds. Hartford's
fixed-income staffers continue to run client assets in accounts outside retail
mutual funds. Wellington says it will eventually replace Ossino.

MLPs are publicly traded partnerships that typically focus on energy
infrastructure, like pipelines. MLPs are like REITs in that they're required to
return a large portion of their profits to shareholders. That leads to
above-average yields, which have attracted income-searching investors. Indeed,
11 domestic MLP funds have been launched the past two years, including five
SteelPath funds that have 6%-plus yields. The SteelPath funds have also
attracted more than $2 billion in assets as performance has been strong.

USAA Manager to RetireDidi Weinblatt has retired from
her job as a portfolio manager at USAA. Weinblatt ran USAA
Government SecuritiesUSGNX and USAA
IncomeUSAIX for
more than a decade. Donna Baggerly, who ran USAA Government
Securities before Weinblatt, will become the lead manager once again. Baggerly
most recently ran $25 billion in insurance portfolios that followed similar
mandates to the one in place at Government Securities. Matt Freund, who heads up
USAA's investment management group, and Julianne Bass will take over USAA
Income. The duo has comanaged several funds since 2007, including Bronze-rated USAA
Short-Term BondUSSBX, USAA Intermediate-Term BondUSIBX, and USAA High
IncomeUSHYX.

Etc.KKR filed to launch KKR Alternative High
Yield and KKR Alternative Corporate Opportunity funds.
Both will primarily invest in a range of fixed-income securities.

Guy Holbrook was removed as a comanager at Columbia CMG Ultra Short
Term Bond CMGUX. The
fund added Leonard Aplet as a comanager and will retain current comanager Mary
Werler.

Andrew Wheatley-Hubbard was added as a comanager to BlackRock Global
Dividend IncomeBIBDX, joining current managers Richard Turnill and
Stuart Reeve. Wheatley-Hubbard joined BlackRock in 2007 and previously served as
an industrials analyst.

Scout Funds filed to launch the Scout Emerging Markets Fund in September
2012. The fund's lead manager will be Mark Weber, who also comanages
Scout International DiscoveryUMBDX.

DWS Clean TechnologyWRMAX will be liquidated in October 2012. The fund has
delivered a negative 12.9% annualized return since its September 2007
inception.

Columbia added Rahul Narang as a comanager to Columbia
TechnologyCTCAX.
Lead manager Wayne Collette remains with the fund.

BlackRock is planning to launch a U.S. real estate securities fund in late
2012. The fund will be comanaged by Mark Howard-Johnson, who spent more than a
decade comanaging Goldman Sachs Real EstateGREAX, and Sherry Rexroad, who spent
nearly a decade comanaging ING Real EstateCRARX.

TIAA-CREF filed to launch the Social Choice Bond Fund. The
fund will be comanaged by Joseph Higgins and Steven Raab of TIAA-CREF
BondTIBDX and
Stephen Liberatore of TIAA-CREF Tax-Exempt BondTITIX.